December 24, 2009

The Health Care Overhaul Bill was passed in the senate on a party line vote of 60 - 39, and President Obama called it “the most important piece of social legislation since the Social Security Act passed in the 1930s ......With today's vote, we are now incredibly close to making health insurance reform a reality in this country,.... Our challenge, then, is to finish the job. We can't doom another generation of Americans to soaring costs and eroding coverage and exploding deficits."

it will not offer illegal residents coverage, even if they can pay for it themselves

it will almost certainly increase by at least 30 million the number of people covered by government and private health insurance.

it will for the first time require most individuals to buy health insurance

it also will offer federal subsidies to help pay premiums

it will impose penalties on employers that do not offer workers affordable policies

it will set up an insurance exchange where individuals can shop for coverage if they have no job-based coverage

it will make insurance companies end practices that have made it hard for people to get coverage when they get sick or have a chronic disease by setting caps on total payments, for example, or denying coverage on the basis of a pre-existing condition

it will let young adults stay longer on their parents' health plan

it will allow families free preventive health care such as well-baby visits and mammograms.

it will give health care professionals incentives to provide more cost-effective care and face penalties if they do not

Saadia,Yes, there is a sizable group of Americans who are advocating on behalf of illegal immigrants who came into the country as underage minors and are therefore not responsible for their illegal alien status; my last posting was about this issue the 'Dream Act' which if passed would provide equal opportunities for higher education to children of illegal immigrantsAs for 'abortion' - the country is divided on this as you rightly guessed due to religious reasons, and obviously no politician wants to take the bull by the horns on this one...